Bottle carrier device

ABSTRACT

A carrier for bottles or the like arranged in package form, such as a six-pack, and particularly designed for bottles of the molded glass envelope type with thin and substantially uniform wall thickness, and wherein the bottom of the bottle, which is often of non-supporting configuration, is capped with a cup-like base member or coaster of less brittle material for protecting the bottle and providing a self-supporting base therefor; the carrier being in the form of a sheet of suitable material, as plastic, with one or more vertical walls lapped with the side walls of the base members and secured thereto by releasable fastening means by which the package may be supported for transport by grasping handle grip means adjacent the tops of the packaged bottles; the handle grip means being adjacent the top of a single vertical wall disposed between rows of bottles in the package, or being on a horizontal shelf portion joining two vertical walls in which case the vertical walls are disposed exteriorly of the bottles and joined to corresponding exterior side wall portions of the cup-like base members.

United States Patent 1 Tanzer [541 BOTTLE CARRIER DEVICE John J. Tanzer, 8501 West Higgins Road, Brookfield, Wis. 60631 [22] Filed: Oct. 9, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 79,411

[76] Inventor:

Primary Examiner-Leonard Summer Attorney-Robert W. Beart, Michael Kovac and Jack R. Halvorsen [57] ABSTRACT A carrier for bottles or the like arranged in package form, such as a six-pack, and particularly designed for bottles of the molded glass envelope type with thin and substantially uniform wall thickness, and wherein the bottom of the bottle, which is often of non-supporting configuration, is capped with a cup-like base member or coaster of less brittle material for protecting the bottle and providing a self-supporting base therefor; the carrier being in the form of a sheet of suitable material, as plastic, with one or more vertical walls lapped with the side walls of the base members and secured thereto by releasable fastening means by which the package may be supported for transport by grasping handle grip means adjacent the tops of the packaged bottles; the handle grip means being ad- 'jacent the top of a single vertical wall disposed between rows of bottles in the package, or being on a horizontal shelf portion joining two vertical walls in which case the vertical walls are disposed exteriorly of the bottles and joined to corresponding exterior side wall portions of the cup-like base members.

2 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures BOTTLE CARRIER DEVICE This invention is concerned with a carrier for composite bottles arranged in package form, such as a sixpack. A composite bottle is of the type in which a thinwalled glass envelope, usually blow molded, is bottomed by a cup-like base member or coaster element secured thereto and serving as protection for the bottom of the bottle and also as a self-supporting base therefor when the bottom of the bottle is of a non-supporting configuration, as spherical or the like.

There are various types of carriers for conventional bottles and cans arranged in groups in a package, such as six-packs. Such carriers are often in the form of plastic sheets apertured in accordance with the arrangement of the containers in the package such that the ends of the containers passed through corresponding apertures flex the material therearound so that it will engage beneath can beads or bottle caps for supporting the same for handling and transport. Other similar carriers may include a wrap-around band portion engaging intermediate body portions of the packaged containers. And, of course, there are cardboard carriers with bottoms to support the included containers and with handle formations at the top thereof for handling and transport of the packaged containers.

An object of the present invention is to provide a carrier which cooperates with the base of a composite bottle in making up the package for handling and transport thereof.

Another object of the invention is to provide such a carrier which includes a vertical wall merging with a handle grip portion at the top thereof and having releasable connection means between the bottom portion thereof and the lapped adjacent side walls of the base members of the individual bottles.

A further object of the invention is to provide a carrier having a pair of vertical walls exteriorly protecting the packaged bottles and exteriorly joined to adjacent lapped portions of the side walls of the base members of the included bottles by releasable connections permitting selective removal of bottles from the package and with a top horizontal shelf joining the upper edges of the vertical walls and affording the handle grip for handling and transport of the package.

The above and other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will be hereinafter more fully pointed out in connection with the detail description of the drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a six-pack of composite bottles in one form of package;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of the package of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view of one connection between the carrier wall and adjacent base side wall; and

FIG. 4 is a vertical section through a bottle package showing another form of carrier therefor.

With reference to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 of the accompanying drawing, there is shown a six-pack of bottles each of which includes a glass envelope or body portion which may have a non-supporting bottom, such as spherical, as at 10a in FIG. 3. The top of each bottle is of conventional reduced finish configuration as at 10b, which is closed by a crimp cap 12 or the like. To make up the composite bottle, there is provided a cup-like base member 14 in the nature of a coaster fitted to and secured in suitable manner over the bottom 10a of the bottle. The side wall 16 of the base member 14 extends upwardly for snug engagement with the bottle wall along an area 18. The bottom 20 of the base member may be annularly ribbed as at 22 with the central portion abutting the adjacent bottom of the bottle. The base member 14 is formed of a material less frangible and less brittle than the glass envelope, such as a shock resistant type of polyethylene, or the like. As such, the base member not only affords protection to the bottle but also forms a self-supporting base therefor.

Still referring to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, the carrier includes a sheet of plastic material, such as polyethylene, folded to provide substantially vertical walls 24, 24a and a horizontal wall portion 26 therebetween. The horizontal wall portion 26 is apertured in accordance with the arrangement of the bottles in the package for each aperture to receive therethrough the pouring or finish 10b end of a corresponding bottle with the carrier material around each aperture stretched to snug engagement beneath a corresponding bottle cap 12, as more particularly shown in FIG. 2. The substantially vertical walls 24, 240 depending from the horizontal wall 26 overlie the outside surfaces of the body envelopes and serve to protect the same against impact as well as against sunlight. These side walls present along the lower edges thereof attachment areas which lap over adjacent upper edges of the side walls 16 of the base members and are provided with spaced apertures 28 arranged in pairs for each bottle to receive corresponding rivet-like projections 30 with heads 30a (see FIG. 3) to snap within corresponding apertures 28. Various types of interconnecting snap buttons and other fastener elements may be employed, such as keyhole arrangements and the like. The horizontal wall 26 is provided with apertures 32, 32a for finger grip or handle insertion in carrying the package. The load may be transmitted through the rivet-like connections 30 to the side walls 24, 24a and to the horizontal wall 26, or the load may be taken up by engagement of the material of the wall 26 around and beneath the bottle caps, or there may be distribution of the load between'the wall 26 and the connections 30. When it is desired to remove a bottle from the package, a selected bottle may be twisted to separate the rivet 30 from the corresponding opening 28 or alternatively, the corresponding portion of the attachment area of a side wall 24 or 24a may be pulled outwardly to effect the fastener release. In some instances, the rivet-like connection may take the form of a thermoplastic spot to be interconnected with a-corresponding opening 28 by heat and pressure in which case twisting of a bottle for removal will rupture the connection.

In FIG. 4 there is shown a modified carrier package for bottles of the type shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 or of the type shown wherein the contents body or envelope 34 merges into an elongate neck 36 terminating in the finish 38 closed by cap 40. Here again, the bottom of the bottle is received in a coaster element 42 with side walls 44. The carrier takes the form of a vertically disposed sheet 46 of relatively stiff plastic material arranged between the rows of bottles in the package. The lower attachment portion 48 of the sheet is secured to adjacent side walls 44 of each pair of bottles by plastic rivets 50 of sufficient strength to permit carrying of the package by finger or handle insertion in aperatures 52 at the upper portion 54 of the sheet 46, the upper and lower portions of the sheet merging with one another. However, the rivet strength is such as to permit selective removal of a bottle from the package by twisting the same to shear off the corresponding rivet heads, leaving at least a partial connection with the remaining adjacent bottle of the pair.

I claim:

1. A carrier package of bottles of the type having a thin-walled contents envelope and a separate cup-like protective base member; and comprising sheet means including a vertically disposed attachment portion lapped with side wall portions of the cup-like base members, means connecting the lapped areas of said attachment portion and the side wall portions of said base members by releasable fastening means for permissive and selective removal of bottles from the package, and said attachment portion merging with a handle grip portion approximately the level of the tops of the bottles for handling and transport of the package, said sheet means comprising a central panel between rows of bottles in the package with the lower attachment portion thereof secured to the adjacent side walls of the cup-like bases by releasable mutually cooperable fastening means and with the upper portion thereof apertured to provide the handle grip portion, and said fastening means comprising a material between the adjacent attachment portion and the side walls of the cup-like bases to releasably interlock the same in package form, and said material of said fastening means comprising a plastic material shaped to releasably interlock the adjacent attachment portion and side walls of the cup-like bases in package form.

2. A carrier package of bottles of the type having a thin-walled contents envelope and a separate cup-like protective base member; and comprising sheet means including a vertically disposed attachment portion lapped with side wall portions of the cup-like base members, means connecting the lapped areas of said attachment portion and the side wall portions of said base members by releasable fastening means for permissive and selective removal of bottles from the package, and said attachment portion merging with a handle grip portion approximately the level of the tops of the bottles for handling and transport of the package, said sheet means comprising a central panel between rows of bottles in the package with the lower attachment portion thereof secured to the adjacent side walls of the cup-like bases by releasable mutually cooperable fastening means and with the upper portion thereof apertured to provide the handle grip portion, and said fastening means comprising a material between the adjacent attachment portion and the side walls of the cup-like bases to releasably interlock the same in package form, and wherein the material of said fastening means is a plastic material in the form of rivet-like connections. 

1. A carrier package of bottles of the type having a thin-walled contents envelope and a separate cup-like protective base member; and comprising sheet means including a vertically disposed attachment portion lapped with side wall portions of the cup-like base members, means connecting the lapped areas of said attachment portion and the side wall portions of said base members by releasable fastening means for permissive and selective removal of bottles from the package, and said attachment portion merging with a handle grip portion approximately the level of the tops of the bottles for handling and transport of the package, said sheet means comprising a central panel between rows of bottles in the package with the lower attachment portion thereof secured to the adjacent side walls of the cup-like bases by releasable mutually cooperable fastening means and with the upper portion thereof apertured to provide the handle grip portion, and said fastening means comprising a material between the adjacent attachment portion and the side walls of the cup-like bases to releasably interlock the same in package form, and said material of said fastening means comprising a plastic material shaped to releasably interlock the adjacent attachment portion and side walls of the cup-like bases in package form.
 1. A carrier package of bottles of the type having a thin-walled contents envelope and a separate cup-like protective base member; and comprising sheet means including a vertically disposed attachment portion lapped with side wall portions of the cup-like base members, means connecting the lapped areas of said attachment portion and the side wall portions of said base members by releasable fastening means for permissive and selective removal of bottles from the package, and said attachment portion merging with a handle grip portion approximately the level of the tops of the bottles for handling and transport of the package, said sheet means comprising a central panel between rows of bottles in the package with the lower attachment portion thereof secured to the adjacent side walls of the cup-like bases by releasable mutually cooperable fastening means and with the upper portion thereof apertured to provide the handle grip portion, and said fastening means comprising a material between the adjacent attachment portion and the side walls of the cup-like bases to releasably interlock the same in package form, and said material of said fastening means comprising a plastic material shaped to releasably interlock the adjacent attachment portion and side walls of the cup-like bases in package form. 